Higher PF pension gets HC approval

Sujatha Varma ,  Vijayawada

The Hyderabad High Court has ruled in favour of four retired employees of A.P. State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC), upholding their claim for higher pension.

  The cases were filed in 2012 and 2013 by the employees who were

denied higher pension by the EPFO, despite a higher contribution from

their PF.

  The EPFO had rejected their plea holding that prior consent of the

competent authority was not obtained before contributing more to the PF fund.

  The petitioners argued that since ' higher amounts were recovered

from their salaries, they were entitled to a ' higher pension ' and

cited the Supreme Court order in R.C. Gupta case of 2017.

  The top court, in that case, held that an employee could contribute

higher amount at any point of time. It had ruled that refusal by EPFO

to pay higher pension to the employee on the ground that the cut-off date option was not exercised was not valid.

  In the APSRTC employees' case, the HC agreed that there should not be any distinction between the pension pattern of employees of '

exempted ' and ' unexempted ' establishments until a ' better '

pension scheme was evolved. The judge directed the EPFO to work out the amount of pension payable to the pensioners.

( The Hindu, Chennai city edition, Monday, October 8, 2018 )

Courtesy : MPS